Sheila Grimes' Guide to Surviving The Zombie Apocalypse
by Duchess Whitehearth
Summary: Kids have it easy when it comes to surviving; they'll have grown up in a world where killing the undead is the norm while the adults will have it hard; having known the world for what it once was, but what about the teenagers? The people who are no longer kids, but far from being adults? Well, Sheila Grimes has an answer for that. BEING REWEITTEN


_**Summary:**_ Kids have it  easy when it comes to surviving; they'll have grown up in a world where killing the undead is the norm while the adults will have it hard; having known the world for what it once was, but what about the teenagers? The people who are no longer kids, but far from being adults? Well, Sheila Grimes has an answer for that.

As you can clearly see below, I've added a few more characters to make my story interesting. And yes, I know there are a lot of extra characters, but I'll make it work and you'll love them.

By the way; if you are a Shane or Lori lover, which I doubt anyone is, this story is not for you...Seriously, not for you. Most chapters will follow Sheila and maybe an OC or two, but there will be chapters dedicated to my other OC's. There will even be chapters dedicated to certain families like the Horvath's, the Douglas's or even the Espinoza/Morales family.

Also, I just watched WatchMojo's Top 10 Most Shocking Walking Dead Deaths and I am now officially depressed. Don't watch it if you're not up to date on TWD because I hadn't watched season six or seven and now I want to die.

* * *

 **CAST**

Alexandra Daddario as Sheila Grimes (15)

Nicholas Hoult as Eddie Peletier (17)

Kirsten Dunst as Annie (26)

Jessica Lu as Sydney Rhee (19)

Elizabeth Banks as Meredith Horvath (40)

Ruby Rose as Stacy Horvath (20)

Logan Lerman as Nick Horvath (16)

Kylie Bunbury as Lou Douglas (15)

K.D. Aubert as Marissa Douglas (22)

Judy Reyes as Maria Espinoza (35)

Edy Ganem as Camila Espinoza (19)

David Henry as Ben Espinoza (18)

Jake T Austin as Carlos Espinoza (15)

* * *

 **SHEILA**

 _"You're not my dad. You're never going to be my dad...or Carl's."_

* * *

If there was one thing Sheila Grimes hated the most, it had to be laundry duty.

Sure, the world had gone to hell and there were zombies- walkers, they called them- walking around like it was their God given right, but laundry still somehow managed to be the thing Sheila hated most. She had only gotten stuck doing it because Shane had decided that laundry was woman's work and all the other ladies had refused to do it that day. Sheila had ultimately got stuck doing it.

She couldn't help but cast an annoyed stare over at Shane. He stood on the other side of the lake's shoreline teaching Sheila's brother, Carl, how to skip rocks. He didn't have time to wash his own underwear, but he had all the time in the world for skipping rocks.

Sheila knew that she could've just refused to do the laundry like the other women in the group had, but the last time she refused to do something Shane said, her mother had thrown the biggest of fits. She went on and on for hours about how Sheila needed to be more appreciative of everything Shane had done for them, how Sheila needed to be more respectful and stop making life so hard.

Carl had no idea of why their mother was so defensive of Shane, but Sheila did. Lori, Sheila and Carl's mother, thought that Sheila was oblivious to her and Shane's relationship, but Sheila had known for a long time.

She had figured out her mother and Shane's sexually relationship weeks ago. It had only been a couple of days after they had been informed of Sheila and Carl's father's death before Sheila heard her mother and Shane having sex in a park bathroom. She didn't say anything, but she did start distancing herself from Lori.

It wasn't that her mother had moved on from her father, it was that she had moved on so quick- and with her father's best friend. Sheila knew that Lori was only hiding her relationship because she knew that Sheila wouldn't approve and that had been another factor in Sheila's dislike for Shane.

The last had been her fathers death. Sheila wasn't just some rebellious teenager acting out against everyone because she had lost someone important in her life, she was better than that. But Sheila was sure that there was something that Shane wasn't telling them about what happened at the hospital.

When the outbreak happened, the hospital had been the first place to get swarmed. Shane had sworn up in down that he had tried to save her father, but there wasn't anything he could do and to be honest, Sheila didn't believe him.

Carl, somehow, believed that their father was still alive even though he had been told again and again that it wasn't possible and Sheila wished that she had his unlimited belief in the impossible.

"Hey, kid." A voice said, pulling her out of her thoughts and Sheila looked up to see Shane standing above her. Looking over to where he had been only a moment ago, Sheila saw that Carl was now on his own, trying- and failing- to skip rocks by himself. "Think you can keep an eye on your brother for a bit?"

Sheila rolled her eyes. "I would." She said as she stood up and brushed the dirt from the back of her jeans. "But I'm on laundry duty, so I guess you'll have to do something yourself for a change." She bent down to pick up the basket of wet clothes and turned to leave, but Shane grabbed her by the arm.

"Hey," He said sharply before looking around. Seeing Jacqui and Andrea talking a few yards away, Shane kept his voice low. "I don't know what your problem is, but you need to stop it now." He ordered. "If you hadn't noticed, the worlds gon' to shit and there isn't time for you to be a bratty teenager so you need to check your attitude and do what you're told."

Getting as close to his face as Sheila would allow herself, she narrowed her eyes at him. "You're not my dad." She hissed. "You're never going to be my dad...or Carl's." Ripping her arm away from him, Sheila gave him one more glare before walking away.

Sheila angry stomped towards where Carol, one of the other group members, had made a couple of clothesline using a couple of tree branches and rope. Lori, who was talking to one of the other mothers named Meredith, saw Sheila approaching, but didn't notice the annoyed and angry look on her face.

"Hey, Sweetie." She greeted, but Sheila simply shot her mother a look on contempt before continuing on to the clothes line. Looking back at the way her daughter had come from, Lori saw Shane and immediately ended her conversation before going towards him.

"What happened?" She asked as soon as she got to him and he raised an eyebrow.

"What d'you mean?" Lori crossed her arms and gave him a look of knowing.

"Sheila's pissed." She reminded him. "And Sheila has the patience of a Saint. Whenever she's like that, it's always because of you." Shane sighed.

"Don't worry about it, Lor." He said. "She's just being a teenager." Lori shook her head.

"No," She denied. "Because my daughter is as far away from a typical teenager as someone could get and this isn't anything new. She's been this way towards you since Carl was born and she was only five then. The only thing I can think of is that she remembers-"

"Hey," Shane cut her off, placing a hand on her arm. "She was a kid then- not even a kid. She doesn't know what she saw. You just need to calm down."

Lori closed her eyes and nodded. "I just don't want her to hate me more than she already does."

* * *

"Did you really say that right to his face?" Lou asked her friend who nodded from where she sat next to her boyfriend Eddie.

Being a teenager during the end of the world wasn't exactly fun or easy. Lou and Sheila were only fifteen years old and limited by the adults on what they were allowed to do. While Eddie was sixteen and allowed to go on runs, the girls were not- something that irked Sheila more than she could express. Lou, however, was a lot more sensitive and emotional when it came to dealing with things, so she didn't mind not going on runs into the walker filled streets of Atlanta.

"I'm tired of him walking around here like he's the boss of everything." Sheila said and leaned against Eddie's chest.

As usual for when the teens wanted to get away from their dictators, they were in the quarry. They went down there usually to swim or to just sit on the rocks and be together, but they sometimes had to do that while watching the younger kids; Sheila's brother Carl, Eddie's sister Sophia and Louis and Eliza; the two children of the Morales/Espinoza family. They were all currently playing in the water, but only so far as the water went to their knees. Miranda, Louis and Eliza's mother, was terrified that her children would die from accidental drowning since neither of them could swim.

Eddie, Lou and Sheila had been joined by Louis and Eliza's older cousins Camila and Carlos- the latter of the two was a few years older than the teens at nineteen and Carlos was their age, but they were still considered teenagers to the adults. They had another brother, Ben, but he was off on a run with his girlfriend Sydney, her brother Glenn and a few others including Lou's brother T-Dog.

"He kind of is the boss." Camila reminded Sheila who rolled her eyes. "What's with you two anyway?" Camila continued. "I met you guys over a month ago and you've been nothing but pissy to each other."

Sheila sighed. "My dad." She began and her hand immediately went up to her neck, expecting to come into contact with the string of pearls that used to belong to her grandmother- until she remember what she had done to them. "Before the world went to shit, he got shot on duty. He was a cop." She explained at their confused faces. "He was in a coma for about a month before people started turning into walkers and his hospital was overrun with them. Shane was the only person there who could've helped him, but..."

"So you blame Shane for your dad dying?" Lou asked and Sheila shook her head.

"He said that he did all that he could do, but I know there's something he's not telling us." She said. "That's not even half the reason I hate him."

"Then what is?" Camila asked.

Sheila ran her hand through her dark brown hair. "He's sleeping with my mom." She said finally and Camila's eyes went wide. "They think that I don't know, but I do; I've known for a long time."

"Whoa..." Was all that Camila had to say and the others couldn't help but agree.

No more was said by any of the teens as they all heard the familiar sound of a car alarm going off. They all exchanged looks of confusion and all came to the same decision of checking it out as the alarm got louder.

"What's happening?!" Before they could get far, Sheila turned to see Louis, Eliza, Sophia and Carl coming towards her. The other teens had already gone wen the kids reached her.

"I don't know." Sheila took in her brothers frightened face and bent down so they were face to face. "Hey," She said. "Look at me." She commanded, holding his face in her hands. "I am not gonna let happen to you. Okay?" He nodded. "Now, I need you all to stay here. Louis is in charge."

"Where's Eddie?" Sophia asked and Sheila sighed.

"He went to see what was going on." She told the little girl. "Now all of you stay here and listen to Louis." She ordered before climbing out of the steep hill that would take her out of the quarry.

When she got to the top, she was surprised to see everyone crowded around the red car which was causing all the commotion, yelling and shouting at Glenn and his sister Sydney. Amy and Annie were demanding to know where their sister- Andrea- was, Dale was yelling at Glenn to turn off the alarm, Shane was yelling for the hood to be popped open and everyone else was just yelling.

"This is ridiculous." Sheila pushed past everyone before getting to the car and pushed Shane out of the way. Finding the tiny latch that would open the hood, she pulled it and the hood unlocked before she lifted it up and pulled out the tiny black piece that was causing so much noise.

The alarm immediately stopped and the only sound left was Amy and Annie demanded to know where Andrea was.

"She's fine!" Sydney yelled, shutting up the two blondes.

"Why isn't she with you?!" Amy asked and Sydney gestured to the car.

"There's only room for two people, bonehead." She spat and Amy glared at her. Everyone knew that there was no love lost between Amy and Sydney. The moment they had met, they clashed like polka-dots and stripes.

"Everybody is okay." Glenn said, interrupting the two. "Well...Merle, not so much." _'That's gonna be trouble.'_ Sheila thought as Shane began berating the two siblings.

"Are you crazy?" He asked with a glare. "Drivin' this wailing bastard up here? You tryn'a draw every walking for miles."

"I think we're okay." Dale said, not liking the way Shane was talking to the Rhee siblings.

Shane turned to the old man. "You call being stupid okay?" He spat.

"Leave them alone." Sheila demanded and Shane turned his glare on her. "They're not stupid. They wouldn't drive a loud ass car up here without good reason."

"Sheila Annabelle Grimes!" Sheila sighed and resisted the urge to roll her eyes as her mother stepped up. "Don't talk to Shane like that after everything he's done for us. Have you lost your mind?"

"You know what-" Sheila began, sick of her mothers scolding and protectiveness of Shane, but she was stopped by the sound of an incoming truck. No longer angry about her daughters disrespectful tone, Lori took Sheila by the hand and pulled her close.

"Is that Andrea?" Annie asked and Glenn nodded.

Once the truck stopped a few feet behind Glenn's new car, the passenger side door opened and got out, wasting no time rushing over to his wife and his children who went running past Sheila not long after, telling her that they had completely disregarded her orders. Sheila heard the back of the truck open and Andrea was the first to come in sight.

"Andrea!" Amy cried running towards her sister and Annie was not far behind.

More people began piling out of the back and going to their own families; Dale, his daughter-in-law Meredith and her son, Nick, were all visibly relieved at the sight of a tall woman with pale skin and short black hair; Meredith's daughter, Stacy. Lou ran to the truck as soon as she caught sight of he brother, T-Dog and Morales's sister, Maria, let out a cry of relief when her son, Ben, ran to her and his siblings. Sheila couldn't help but notice the absence of Merle Dixon, like Glenn had said.

"Let's go." Lori said as she pulled Sheila away, but her voice was no longer angry. Sheila knew her mother got upset every time she saw the other families embracing each other, as it reminded her of the absence of her husband.

They hadn't walked far before they caught sight of Carl, who was also remembering his father. He, however, was not hiding it as well as his mother was.

"Oh, sweetie." Lori said softly as she went to her son. His arms immediately went around her middle as her cried into her shirt. Wiping away the tears that formed in her eyes when she saw her brother, Sheila wished that he would let go of his belief that their dad was still alive. All it was doing was giving him false hope.

She felt an arm around her shoulder and didn't need to look up to know that it was Eddie. Turning her body into him, her wrapped his other arm around him as hers went around his back.

"It's okay." He told her. "It's not gonna feel like this forever."

A second felt like forever as Eddie held her; lolling her from side to side much like he did with his sister Sophia. He honestly didn't know how much more Sheila could take before she broke; battling with Shane and Lori everyday, trying to let Carl be a kid without putting him in danger, constantly telling him that the world would eventually get better while she knew for a fact that it wouldn't. Eddie knew that she liked lying to her brother just as much as he liked lying to Sophia. He also knew that Sheila wasn't made for this kind of a world and eventually it was going to break her.

"How'd ya'll get out of there anyway?" Eddie heard Shane ask.

"New guy." Glenn answered. "He got us out." New guy? Did they pick up someone new in Atlanta.

Shane shared Eddie's confusion. "New guy?"

"Yeah," Morales continued and Eddie turned his head towards them. "Crazy vato just got into town. Hey, Helicopter boy!" He called, looking at the van. "Come say hello!" Eddie heard the door of the truck slam close as Morales looked back to Shane. "Guys a cop. Just like you." He said just as a man came into sight.

Eddie knew him.

Well...not knew him, but he recognized him. His Sheriffs Deputy uniform screamed 'cop', but the shape of his eyes and the shape of his nose were something that Eddie could never forget, as he saw them everyday in Sheila and Carl.

"Shield." Eddie said, calling up his nickname for her as he began to get worked up. "Sheila. Sheila look!"

"What?" She demanded as she finally pulled her head away and looked up at him. He nodded towards the man and when Sheila finally followed his gaze her eyes widened. "Dad?"

Even though twenty feet separated them, he seemed to heard her and pulled his eyes away from his longtime best friend before training them on her.

His legs went weak as he stumbled back a bit and a disbelieving feeling washed through his entire body. 'It can't be...' He thought. Of all the people in all of Atlanta and he just so happened to be saved by the ones who had her? Who had his family?

"Dad," She said louder as she pulled away from Eddie. "Daddy!" Without warning she sprinted towards him, getting everyone's attention- including Carl and Lori's.

"Dad!" Sheila heard Carl screech from behind her just as she impacted with her father and his arms immediately went around her as her own went around his neck. Not a moment later she felt Carl's small body crash into their dad beside her.

"Oh!" Rick couldn't keep his tears at bay as his finally embraced his children after, what seemed like, eternity. How long had it been since he had seen the blue eyes that he had passed on to his children? How long had it been since he had hugged them like they would slip away from him at any moment? He could only remember getting hugged so tightly when they had been young children and ran into his and Lori's bedroom because of thunder or a nightmare.

"I can't believe it." Lou said as she went over to Eddie and watched as Lori Grimes went to her family.

"Neither can I." Eddie replied. He was happy- ridiculously happy...and confused and terrified and disbelieving as he watched Sheila embrace her father. How had a man who had been in a month long coma find his way into Atlanta, only to be saved and then save the group that his entirely family was apart of? Some would call it a miracle.

As the family embraced, Eddie only had eyes for Sheila until he noticed the look on Lori Grimes' face and the fact that it wasn't happy and it was being directed towards Shane Walsh. That's when he remembered what Sheila had told him just a few minutes before.

 _"I know there's something he's not telling us..."_

* * *

"I knew you were alive." Carl was saying over four hours later. "Sheila didn't believe me, but I knew you were alive."

Since seeing his children for the first time in months, Rick hadn't let either one of them go. Even then as they sat around the campfire with all eyes on them, Sheila had her head on Rick's shoulder and Carl had slid off of the log, but kept a firm grip on his fathers hand. Lori was on Rick's other side running her hand through Carl's hair.

"What was it like?" Rick turned to the woman who had spoken. She sat on the same log at T-Dog with another girl beside them. With matching chocolate brown skin and black hair pulled into a ponytail, Rick assumed that they were all related. He could remember T-Dog mentioning them back in Atlanta. "Waking up after so long with no one around?"

"I...I don't think there're words to describe what I felt." He replied honestly. "Bein' in that hospital and seeing all those dead people piled up..." He shook his head. "It was...it was like I had stepped out of real life and into a horror movie."

"How did you even get to Atlanta?" Another voice asked. Once again female, it came from the oldest child in Morales' family. "I mean, you were in a coma. You should be dead."

"Camila Esperanza." Her mother snapped.

" _Que_?" She asked with a confused shrug. "It was just a question." She looked back at Rick. "No offence."

"S'Okay." He told her. "I just...When I got out of the hospital I got help from a father and his son. They helped me and then we parted ways. When I got to Atlanta, I got attacked by a hoard of walkers and ended up gettin' trapped in a tank of all things." He chuckled. "I would've died then and there if it wasn't for Glenn."

Everyone, almost in unison, looked towards Glenn who seemed to be uncomfortable with the attention. "It was nothing." He claimed. "I just did what anyone else would've done."

"No," Andrea denied. "It's not. There aren't a lot of people- me included- who would risk their lives to save a man they don't even know. You're a good guy."

Sydney grinned and slung her arm over Glenn's shoulders. "That's my brother; Glenn the hero they called him. When we were kids, he would rescue cats from trees, help old ladies at the supermarket and chase away bullies even when he knew they'd come back and kick his ass later."

She got a few snorts and chuckles, but Maria noticed Glenn scratching his neck. "Wait," She said. "Did you really?"

Glenn nodded. "Like I said." Sydney repeated. "Glenn the hero."

* * *

"Where's Sheila?" Rick questioned his wife after Carl had fallen asleep. Lori looked up at him where he was laid above her.

"A few tents over." She answered. "She shares it with her friends; Camila and Lou, I think. Why?" Reaching over to his discarded uniform pants, Rick grabbed them while Lori sat up as she tried to see what he was pulling out of his pocket. "What is- oh. Are those...?"

Rick nodded as he held out the pinkish white pearl necklace so that he and Lori could both see them. "You remember when Sheila was five and she found that hold in her wall next to her closet door?"

"Yeah," Lori nodded. "And if I remember right, she only found it because you broke the chair we put in front of it even though you knew it couldn't hold you." Rick smiled at the memory along with her.

"Well, after I got out of the hospital, I went back to our house." He continued. "Almost everything was gone; our food, our medicine cabinet..." He shook his head. "Even the photo albums; that's how I knew that you were alive, that you got out and I knew I had to find you, but then went into Sheila's room and I found these shoved into that hole in the wall along with this." He held up a small folded piece of paper. He handed it to Lori and she gave him an inquisitive glance before unfolding it. There, on the slightly crumpled paper, were four words written in Sheila's neat handwriting.

" _Atlanta._ " Lori read. "' _Come find us.'_ She wrote this?" Rick nodded.

"I know that Carl said that she didn't believe him when he said I was alive," He began, taking back the note. "But she wouldn't have left these if that was true; she hasn't taken these off since your mother gave them to her."

"I didn't even notice they were gone, it's like...it's like I don't even know my own daughter anymore."

"Hey," Rick put a hand on his wife's leg. "I'm sure that's not true-"

"Rick, you weren't here." She reminded him. "When you got shot and Shane brought her and Carl to the hospital...I could see it in her eyes; she wasn't my sweet little baby girl anymore. And I know that the world ended and that changes people, but...I can barely even recognize my own daughter anymore. The moment Shane told us that you died, Sheila...it's like she couldn't even stand to be around me anymore; she looks at me with so much hate in her eyes and I know she blames Shane- she blames me and I don't know how much more I can take."

"I'll talk to her." Rick promised. "But I know that she doesn't blame you, she's probably just tired. You know how protective of Carl she is. Without me around, she probably just felt like she had to take my place." Lori leaned her head onto Rick's shoulder and he kissed the top of it. "Everything'll be fine...I promise."


End file.
